Raw Gazpacho

Tonight's dinner was a raw tomato gazpacho. The heirloom tomatoes were from Red Wagon Farm, the cucumbers & garlic from our CSA. The Brazil nuts were the surprise ingredient ...mmm. I love the Vitamix. Everything from the nut milk to the soups are smoooooooth. Love it. I've had 2 green smoothies today too, although I'm calling them 'virgin smoothies' because they are much lighter on the greens than usual. Today's were (homemade) raw almond milk, a banana, 1/2 cup blueberries and a few gigantic leafs of kale. This went down much easier than the packed-with-greens smoothies of days past that left me too full!

much fun!

Berry picking was fun. We didn't pick anywhere NEAR the amount I was hoping for, but it was fun and the kids (especially Ted) probably ate more than they picked anyway. We made up for it by stocking up at the little produce shop. This will have to become an annual tradition, although I need to discover the best time to go. They told us the raspberries were plentiful and the strawberries picked over; we found the opposite. Still, lots of fun.

My green smoothie adventures continue. Tonight's smoothie is made up of Swiss Chard, 2 kiwis and half an apple. A little thick, but very tasty. And filling! I am D'ing a batch of "Toll Free Cookies" which have macadamia nuts as their base. I think I added to much stevia, so next time I might leave it out entirely. The flavor is really similar to TollHouse...crazy!

Green Smoothies...bring 'em on!

My (reconditioned, not brand new!) Vitamix arrived yesterday. I think I used it 6 times today, since it blends like a blender and processes like a food processor. I had a green smoothie with dinner (zucchini noodles with raw tomato sauce) and it took a few sips to get into it, but it was good. It was a bunch of Swiss chard, plus a banana, some water and a teeny bit of Stevia. Not bad. I'll try adding more fruits tomorrow, perhaps an apple would brighten it up. I entered a Green Smoothie Challenge so I plan to drink one green smoothie a day til the 15th (Green Smoothie Day, apparently, according to the Green Smoothie Queen). We are going berry picking tomorrow and I hope to cart home a TON of berries to freeze, which will hopefully get the kids to drink these too.
Randi, my mother's helper, was here today. While she entertained the kids, I did up a batch of Kale Chips and some Sunflower Burgers in the dehydrator. Tomorrow I'm going to try some raw "chocolate chip" cookies and see how they are. I also made up some raw fudge in the Vitamix (wowsa! rich and delicious!) plus a peanut butter banana chocolate shake for Ted (using the raw almond milk I made first thing after cleaning the Vitamix for its first use. YUM.) I think I'm on to something. I think I really like this. It sure is an easy way to get the greens in. This will be only the 2nd week of the CSA that I will have gone through the produce without freezing any. Although freezing greens for the smoothies would probably be just fine. (no blanching though...even easier!)

And in non-food news, Mae had her 3 year well check today. She weighs 31 pounds (50%) and is 38 inches tall (75%). I thought she was really tall so she must have very short friends! She only had one shot (Hep A) and was so brave. We went to DQ afterwards (and I didn't even WANT any...crazy!) She is doing great, thriving, healthy and smart. We are going to do a speech evaluation with Child Find. While she got her L's in at 2, she still can't manage any S blends (squirrel, sneaky, school etc.). I'm sure it's age appropriate, but it can't hurt to check. I'm so glad she's doing so well. I'm not sure if it's my demeanor that's changed or hers, but we've had a very nice few days. Perhaps this will be the Terrific Threes?

Going raw

I just wanted to let people (Mom, mostly!) know that one of the reasons the blog has been slow is that I've become very invested in the raw foods thing. What started out on Tuesday as a whim is turning into a full-fledged lifestyle change! I'm not saying that I'll never eat cooked foods again. I know myself better than that. But these foods taste DELICIOUS. And, in the heat of summer, take less than 5 minutes to prepare and don't require the oven or stovetop (obviously). A few ingredients in the food processor and it's ready! It's so much simpler to eat this way than I had envisioned. I am lusting for a VitaMix but at their prices, I'll hold off until my blender dies (it's 10 years old, like all my appliances that refuse to die!) I decided to chronicle the foods, and the journey, over at my Vegan blog, which had been dormant for a while. Most of you probably aren't that interested in the foods, so I didn't want to bore you on the main blog. But I will say that this is worth looking into, for anyone. It's not hard. It's delicious. It's super fast to prepare. And it's good for you!

Besides increased energy, I notice that I am much calmer, especially with the kids. Their sometimes unruly behavior simply doesn't seem to ruffle my feathers as much. I speak to them calmly and quietly, and lo and behold, sooner or later they acquiesce (wow, had to spell check that word!). I've been getting a lot less sleep, going to bed around 11 and waking before the alarm at 7. For me, that is about 2 hours less than "normal." But I still feel fine, in fact, I feel great. And I'm able to stay up later to get things done, without worrying about being a zombie the next day. I go to bed when I'm really tired and fall right to sleep. Good stuff! I ran 5.5 miles yesterday morning and it felt great. Hot, but great. Rock on!

Summer Yum OLS Dinner

Farm pick up was today. The fruit share starts next week and we can't wait! For dinner, we had our head of lettuce with Ani Phyo's Kreamy Curry Dressing (yum!), a raw carrot and raisin salad (double yum!) and sliced cucumbers. So simple, no cooking, and delicious. The carrots this week were both purple and orange. Ted ate most of the purple ones, but I managed to snag a few for the salad. Kale, chard, more green onions, turnips, green beans and zucchini rounded out the share.

Day 1 of eating raw

I learned an important lesson today. Don't eat (a significant amount of) fat in meals next to each other. The result is lethargy and feeling too full. After pudding dinner last night (2 avacodos, 2 bananas and carob powder), I felt satisfied all night, not needing to nibble at all. In the morning I didn't feel hungry, but I was excited to try the Scramble. It was really really good. Seriously. Yum. But...it was also pretty heavy with all the nuts and seeds. I had a slow, slogging run, came home, showered, and took a nap. I couldn't understand why I felt so heavy until re-reading some tips from other raw foodies. A #1 tip is to have the main fat meal for lunch or dinner and to make sure to eat lightly around it. (there can be up to 30g of fat in one avacado, and a 1/2 cup of almonds contains 20!) So, the avocado for dinner and nuts & seeds for breakfast was too much too close together. I also was short on sugar, so I had a banana and felt better. I ate lightly the rest of the day (a smoothie around 1:30, another banana and some carrots about 5 and a sprouted corn tortilla with an avocado at 7.) A good day. I was certainly NOT hungry at all all day long and after my initial inertia, I had lots of energy today. Tomorrow I'm going to try her Coconut Breakfast Cakes with bananas and have my nut fix later in the day. So far, so good!

yum yum yummy!

I am really enjoying my first tentative steps into raw foods. Everything tastes delicious! I did overeat the pudding tonight (there's a reason it says it serves 4!!) but in general, I am amazed at how easy and fast it is to prepare these meals. Tomorrow for breakfast I'm going to have the beautiful Scramble you see above, from Ani Phyo's Raw Food Kitchen cookbook (have I mentioned how much I love the Boulder library system? It has everything!) The kids liked the pudding too, which is a plus!

Today I had my followup with the dermatologist and everything looks good. I'm to massage the bump on my nose 3x/day with vasaline and see him again in October for possible laser therapy to remove the bump. I'm pretty confident I can squoosh it down myself. Did you know stitches that dissolve into your skin are made of cat gut? Seriously! Anyway, my body rejected those and is pushing them back up through my nose, so I'm to examine it for stray guts (iew iew iew!) and pull them with a tweezers if I see any (he found 2 today. I was wondering what those pokey things were!)